Through a joint operation, Quintana Roo authorities arrested Oscar Melchor “N”, alias ‘El 18′, in the state of Coahuila. This subject is identified as a leader of the Sinaloa Cartel involved in various homicides.
Agents of the Investigative Police of the Quintana Roo Prosecutor’s Office executed an arrest warrant against him in the municipality of Saltillo, Coahuila, for his alleged responsibility in the crime of qualified homicide.
Once arrested, ‘El 18′ was transferred by air to Quintana Roo under a strong security device in which elements of the Navy and the Secretariat of Citizen Security (SSC) participated. In the early hours of Saturday, October 12, he arrived at the Cancun International Airport.
Later, ‘El 18’ was taken to the vicinity of the state Prosecutor’s Office to corroborate his health status and prepare the corresponding documentation for his transfer to the Social Reintegration Center (Cereso) of Benito Juárez, where he was admitted moments later.
Óscar Melchor “N”, alias ‘El 18’, is identified as the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel. He was arrested in Coahuila Credit: Quintana Roo Prosecutor’s Office
The arrest of Óscar Melchor stems from events that occurred on April 19, 2021. On that occasion, ‘El 18’ allegedly participated in the kidnapping of a person of reserved identity, who was taken to the Alfredo V. Bonfil ejido, where they dismembered her and abandoned her in a van, which they later set on fire.
Although the Quintana Roo Prosecutor’s Office did not mention it, ‘El 18’ had already been arrested previously. His last arrest took place on the morning of June 29, 2021 in the Alfredo V. Bonfil ejido, located in the municipality of Benito Juárez.
That day, ‘El 18’ was arrested along with four other people (three men and one woman) identified as Néstor “A”, Jairo “B”, Román “O” and Denis “B”. They were all caught in possession of doses of marijuana and were linked to homicides in the north of the state.
According to official reports, ‘El 18’ tried to escape by jumping from a moving patrol car, but thanks to the intervention of the uniformed officers he was immediately recaptured.
According to prosecutor Óscar Montes de Oca, at that time ‘El 18’ had three arrest warrants: two of them for homicide and the third for attempted homicide with a firearm.
One of the events occurred on February 4, 2021, when Ignacio Sánchez Cordero, a candidate for the “Juntos Haremos Historia” coalition for the municipal presidency of Puerto Morelo, was murdered. Prosecutor Montes de Oca said that “El 18” was the intellectual and material author of the crime.
The second event occurred on April 19 of that same year, when a financial operator of the Sinaloa Cartel was murdered in the Alfredo V. Bonfil ejido. The third occurred on March 10, 2021 on the streets of superblock 95 of the Benito Juárez municipality, where a woman and a five-year-old minor were injured after an armed attack.
“It should be noted that the now detained person is one of the leaders of a criminal organization that has operated for years in the state of Quintana Roo and that has been one of the main generators of violence due to the control of drug sales in the entity,” the prosecutor explained.
The reasons and circumstances of the release of ‘El 18’ are unknown, as well as the length of time he had been free since his last arrest in Coahuila.
Source: infobae
